Due to the immense power and draw of the Festival, anticipation and build-up to the races begins months in advance.

Targets are pinpointed a year in advance and the plotting and planning of trainers and punters would put the military to shame.

This year the build-up was all about one man.

Ireland’s premier jumps trainer Willie Mullins has enjoyed a stranglehold on the sport in recent years and his equine stars were the talk of Cleeve Hill.

Going into the week the master handler had an army of favourites dominating the pre-race betting markets.

Four of the very best were all lined up to run on day one.

In the opener the highly-touted Douvan was the jolly for the curtain-raiser, The Supreme Novices Hurdle.

Following immediately, his crack two-mile kid in the jumping novice division was the super-exciting front-running trailblazer Un de Sceaux.

Race four of the afternoon was the Blue Riband of the action, the Champion Hurdle.

Mullins had the odds-on chance Faugheen going to post.

Straight afterwards, the wondergirl Annie Power had the David Nicholson Mares Hurdle at her mercy. Four Mullins good things, all four ridden by crack jockey Ruby Walsh.

For the big hitters, each one was an opportunity to get stuck in and reap the rewards.

However, the majority of folk who frequent the betting rings at Cheltenham are working-class men and women who can’t afford to timber in on huge singles.

So with Mullins’s quartet all short and all on the same day, the accumulative gamble began weeks in advance.

Fiver and £10 roll-ups, £50 trebles, Yankees, Trixies.

You name it, it seemed everyone you bumped into was on the four-timer.

Even the shrewdies who couldn’t see it ever happening at this meeting had a saver on themselves. Just in case.

By the time you got to the meeting on Tuesday lunchtime you could feel the grass tingling and the air electric with the anticipation of what could just be about to unfold.

The ritual roar that accompanies tapes up for the opening Supreme Novice were matched in decibel when the race came to a conclusion as Douvan kicked off the home turn to race up the hill and land the spoils.

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Walsh and Mullins were on the board and it was quickly two as Un de Sceaux proved he was more than just hype with a pillar-to-post win in the Arkle.

Two down, the buzz was starting to become ear-splitting.

Faugheen, surely, was going to have the hardest test. But under a masterful front-running ride from Walsh the horse nicknamed The Machine blurred past the post to the sound of ecstatic cheers.

All of a sudden it was a real, it was really on. This monumental punt could actually land.

Especially as, to many, Annie Power was the penalty kick of the four.

Although she had been off the track for the season her rating had her a stone better than her opponents. The layers were in absolute turmoil.

Already figures of £40million were put on the total cost of this accumulator, not to mention the single bets.

Normally after the feature event on any given day at the Festival, the crowd thins out slightly in the stands for the closing races with the hospitality guests forgetting why they are actually there.

Not this time. You couldn’t get a Rizla between you and the person next to you as the entire place crammed up on every available step to see this moment.

Where were you when Annie won? It would be like the JFK question forever to racing fans and you were going to make damn sure you could say you were right there watching in front of your own peepers.

It was going like clockwork. Annie settled beautifully, stalked the leaders for the first three-quarters of the contest before jumping herself to the front two out.

Turning for home she was six lengths clear. Those who had not already ripped their own tonsils out through screaming were clearing their throats for the moment she landed over the back of the last hurdle to stroll home.

Walsh was in control then came the moment that stopped the sporting world.

Annie took off early, springing out of Ruby’s hands.

Some suspect a shadow from the late afternoon sun across the front of the hurdle caught her out.

On the way down her front legs clipped the top bar.

Almost in slow motion, down she went.

Cheltenham racecourse has never known such silence.

Ironically, Annie’s stablemate Glen’s Melody took advantage to win but Annie was on the turf along with £40m worth of winnings.

Yet here’s the thing.

For all the animal rights clowns who bang on about cruelty to horses and how people don’t care, the cash suddenly didn’t matter.

Annie didn’t get up. The screens came out around her, the medics rushed in and you feared the tumble may have been fatal.

To racing folk the money didn’t matter anymore.

Seeing a superstar stricken made the pit of your stomach turn. After 10 long minutes though she recovered.

Annie sprang to her feet and the place erupted in joy.

It said everything about what these equine heroes mean and it said it all about Cheltenham and how punters become attached to their warriors.